Balletic Ballarat owner Michelle Bodey said the business was going 'exceptionally well' before COVID-19 hit, but the affects of the shutdown of dance studios and cancellation of performances flowed onto her store.

"If they are dancing at home in the loungeroom, they don't need to come into my store to buy my products," she said.

"Parents may have started feeling it financially too."

Ms Bodey opened Balletic in 2018 in response to a need to service the dance community in Ballarat, Melbourne and other regional areas with high quality products.

"There was a need for a high-end market to meet the needs of the students who are taking the next step going pre-professional or looking for something special," she said.

"With my contacts with people who have danced professionally they pointed me in the direction of brands that people wanted and were different.

"A lot of people travelled to Ballarat to visit our store. In the back end of 2019, the business was really starting to fly. Were going exceptionally well."

The first impact of COVID-19 was on supply. In February 2020 it became difficult to source Balletic products from overseas.

By March, the performing arts industry in Australia was shutting down and the business became heavily reliant on government COVID-19 payments.

Ms Bodey said she returned to her former career of teaching and working in other industries to see it through to the end of COVID, 'thinking it wouldn't take very long'.

"We are now going into a third calendar year with COVID and I can't keep paying the rent because there are no longer government handouts," she said.

"It is also challenging to get some of the high end products we have been well known for because Europe is still recovering from COVID.

"I have had to work two jobs for two years now to keep it going and I am exhausted."

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Ms Bodey said business dried up because parents did not want to buy new shoes or dancewear while their children were only dancing at home, with auditions and stage performances cancelled.

She said the Royal South Street was the best time of the year for the business and this was highly impacted.

"Dance only just started to come back at the end of last year and is still very restricted in our third year of COVID," Ms Bodey said.

"We extended our lease for one year to see if it would bounce back.

"Now COVID is spreading like wildfire in amongst my main audience, kids and teenagers and I can't see that abating for the next three or four months.

"I am very aware dance and the arts flourishes when times are good. It is a luxury item and when things aren't great, the first thing to go are luxury items.

"I am very sad because I am very proud of my business and the reputation my team and I built.

"We are now so sought after. Since we started our closing down sale all the top Melbourne dance schools and full time pre-professional students are contacting us."

Balletics is running a closing down sale with plans to shut the doors for the final time at the end of February.

Ms Bodey said she was confident dance and the arts industry would return strong at some point, she just was not sure when.

"Ballarat has an amazing approach to the arts industry and dance," she said.

"We have in 20 plus dance schools in this town.

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"Royal South Street has certainly always been considered the grand final of the dance season and attracts good quality dancers from around Australia.

"It will come back, I just now have no ability to tell you when it will.

"It is very sad it has come to this. I am fortunate in the fact I now have another way of making an income. For some people they are losing their entire livelihoods and it is very hard to watch."

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